By Daphne Anson
Our Israel-hating chums in the Emerald Isle, home to some particularly vociferous examples of the Israel-hating fraternity, are fuming.
As reported here:
‘The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign said it feels vulnerable following a decision by Bank of Ireland to close its bank accounts in the Republic and in Northern Ireland….
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Group has had accounts with Bank of Ireland since it was first established in 2001.
It said it was first contacted about this issue by the bank in July with a series of questions including what the funds in the account were used for and if it transferred any money to Palestine and if so to whom.
The Campaign’s treasurer Martin O’Quigley said it fully answered the bank’s questions and provided it with a copy of its constitution and of its audited accounts for 2015.
It said most of its funds are spend in Ireland raising awareness of Palestinian issues.
The only money or aid it sends to Palestine is to a factory in the West Bank which manufactures traditional Palestinian scarves which the campaign buys as solidarity items.
But it said Bank of Ireland informed it that it does not fit the bank’s appetite for risk as Palestine is deemed to be a high-risk country….
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Group has opened new accounts with AIB [Allied Irish Banks] but said it feels vulnerable that a bank could withdraw facilities without what it believes to be any good reason.
It is considering an appeal to the Banking Ombudsman.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald branded the decision by Bank of Ireland as “outrageous”….’
Meanwhile, the ISPC have issued a statement on social media:
‘ #BDS is under attack in Ireland: As you may have heard on RTE Radio’s This Week program the Bank of Ireland have closed the accounts of the IPSC – after 15 years of banking with them – and not given us a proper reason, merely citing “risk”.
Needless to say, this has had a damaging effect on our ability to finance ourselves through loss of time and income, and on our ability to organise in defence of Palestinian rights. It’s difficult to escape the conclusion that this attack on our ability to bank is a politically motivated measure to silence a human rights organsiation that campaigns for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fulfills its obligations under international law (a campaign the Irish government views as entirely legitimate). Such closures of accounts of BDS-supporting organisations have occurred all over Europe, in France, Germany, Austria and Britain.
The closure has of course had an adverse effect on our finances – and we ask you to please consider making a regular subscription to our help us in our “risky” work advocating for freedom, justice and equality for the people of Palestine.”
For Martin O’Quigley, see this mind-boggling rant of his a year ago, in which, inter alia, he declares that Gaza will be “unliveable by 2020”.
To quote the uploader:
“Martin O’Quigley, Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign spoke at the demonstration in solidarity with refugees and migrants in Dublin on Saturday 12th September 2015. Mr. O’Quigley was invited to speak about the situation facing Palestinian refugees in particular, having been denied their right of return to their homes by Israel for almost seven decades.
Many of those fleeing war, terror, repression and hardship in the Middle East and Africa are Palestinians – some are refugees for a second or third time. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is proud to endorse this demonstration calling on the Irish government to do more for refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe via dangerous journey in which thousands of people have died. In many cases either Western intervention, or Western indifference, has caused the crises which have led to the creation of the problems faced by these people.
Therefore it’s not enough to merely take in those seeking better lives, the Irish government must seek to remedy the root causes, including supporting sanctions on Israel until it respects international law, ends it occupation of Palestine and allows the millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, a right denied them for almost 70 years.” [Emphasis added]
On such arrant nonsense and misinformation and ill-will does the anti-Israel cause rest.
Look at the antisemitism contained in the comments on a report regarding the (no great friend to Israel) Irish president’s praise of Shimon Peres here
Despicably, taking an ill-deserved swipe at Peres (in the Irish Times on 30 September) was Dublin-based ex-pat Israeli academic Ronit Lentin, a known Israel-basher.
‘Sir, – Israel’s former president Shimon Peres was anything but a “symbol of hope and reconciliation in the Middle East” (Editorial, September 29).
Deeply involved in the Zionist settler colonial enterprise in Palestine from its inception, Peres was charged with establishing the Israeli military and air industries (not its “defence industry” as some commentators call it), as well as Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona.
Peres was responsible for persuading France and Britain to attack Egypt in 1956, an imperialist war, not an Israeli response to an existential threat as argued at the time.
He was instrumental in instigating the 1967 war, and, as a member of the ruling (socialist) Mapai party, was one of the architects of the settlement project.
More specifically, Peres ordered the kidnapping of the whistle-blowing nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and gave the order to massacre the Palestinians sheltering in the UN camp in Qana, Lebanon. Peres later claimed he didn’t know that people were hiding in the UN camp, but eyewitnesses said this was a lie and that Israel, which had occupied Qana in the Lebanon invasion of 1982, had a video of the camp and knew exactly what it was doing.
As an Israeli citizen I take no pride in Shimon Peres, a war criminal who should have been prosecuted rather than awarded the by now meaningless Nobel Peace Prize. – Yours, etc,…’
Odious stuff.
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